I am pretty sure we have mentioned this in past VL blogs and articles, but seasonal clearance sales on games have become increasingly worthless over the years. The reason being is a combination of two facts. The first is that these sales are often meant to clear out the last of the old stock, and so chances are the games you are looking for have been long gone in all but a few stores nationwide. The second cause is sites like Cheapassgamer.com, who have not only made these sales noteworthy, but caused a subculture of bottom feeders that will try and scoop up all of these games at once the morning of each sale, selling them on ebay for a tidy profit. Bottom line is that if you have any sort of life, you aren’t going to cash in on any goodies without some help from lady luck.

It seems, however, that some stores might be catching on. Circuit City has a devilishly good sounding clearance coming up for the New Year, this time with a twist; “Limit three games per customer”. →  A reader is you.

I was asked to write a retrospective of sorts, about myself as a gamer. How I have changed in my time as a writer for this site. It isn’t terribly easy, as at first glance it seems to me that nothing changed at all. I still play a lot of games, of many different genres. But I have changed, most of it in the last year. It has been slow, but certain, and I know that it is only going to progress.

I’m not sure if I like the future gamer that I will be. I’m not sure I even like the gamer I am now. Maybe talking it out will fix things (or maybe I’m just becoming a gurrrrrrl).

When I first joined vl, my company allegiances were something along the lines of “Love Nintendo and Sega, like Microsoft, grudgingly forced to follow Sony.” Now, it would look like “Like Nintendo, frustrated with post Dreamcast Sega, love Microsoft, like Sony two out of three times.” →  Readout 3: Takedown

In the last two years, I’ve…ummm… uhhhhhhh.

Hmmm.

Two years is one hell of a long time. Asking me to write about what’s changed in the last two years concerning video games is like asking me to recall the room in which I was born. Every console that we now call next-gen was released in that time frame, and we’re knee-deep in photo-realistic gameplay.

In some ways, I’m more willing to try crazy ideas, like Every Extend Extra Extreme and Drawn to Life. But at the same time, my tastes are becoming more defined. I now know that I would prefer a game with a cohesive storyline rather than awesome gameplay. That’s why I felt completely underwhelmed by Gears of War. It has great action, but there’s not enough context for me to enjoy myself. And that’s why I’ve become hopelessly attached to games like BioShock and Phoenix Wright. I want to play games with believable characters that join together to make an awesome story. →  Oreshika: Tainted Postlines

October of 2005 was a severely messed up time for me. I was newly divorced, living with one of my best friends, and had just found out that in several months time I would be moving to Japan. My life has always been kind of weird but the Fall of ’05 was the pinnacle. Back then, gaming was an escape. My real life kind of sucked and games were an escape for me. I had an Xbox I had modded, a PS2, and a Gamecube. What I lacked in a love life, I more than made up for in pixelated goodness.

When I wasn’t playing video games, I was sleeping or at work. I hated my job and I didn’t sleep often so it can be said that I played a LOT of video games. I did other stuff too, but what sticks in my mind about that time most was the hours I whiled away in front of the TV shooting aliens or playing poker against Chris Ferguson. →  I’ll read you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!